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How can I organize my music in itunes?

fstigre

fstigre

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 12, 2008
158
1
Hi,
I’m a little confused with the way itunes organizes songs. Last night I added some of my cds to itunes and I got a little confused after trying to find my songs and not being on one spot which is what I was expecting to see or at least separated by album.

Where does itunes places downloaded songs from a CD?

How can I organize my songs (after uploaded) by Artist and Album?

Can I create a playlist for each Artist is this the right way to do it?

Can someone show me the way the music should be organized in itunes?

Can someone explain how itunes organizes songs by default or direct me to where I can get the right information?

Thanks,
fstigre
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
You don't download songs from cd.

Definition of download
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Download

1. Songs ripped from cd goes into library.
2. Use list view, sort by artist.
3. NO. Go to view menu, and "Show Browser" (Command+B)
4. Use Smart Play List and search to find songs. You don't have to "organize" songs.
5. google: itunes tutorial
google: itunes guide apple
 
fstigre

fstigre

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 12, 2008
158
1
1. Songs ripped from cd goes into library.
2. Use list view, sort by artist.
Click to expand...

First of all thank you very much!

Ok, I’m still a little confused how does itunes know what the artist is and what album it is if it doesn’t ask you in the ripping process.

I can see songs having this information when purchased from the itunes store or from original albums, but what if for some reason I borrow a cd from a friend and this is already an MP3, will MP3s maintain the original information?

Does every song (no matter where it came from) contain the necessary information or only those ripped from original albums or purchased ones?

Thanks,
Filemon
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
CD info is looked up over web and put into tag.

Music Tag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3

If mp3s are tagged the tag will be read by iTunes.

If music are not tagged then there is no info (only happens when pirating, not when you buy). You can use third party app to find the song info but not 100% accurate.
 
fstigre

fstigre

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 12, 2008
158
1
Wow! Thank you very much for the quick reply.

So the quick answer would be not to worry much about where the songs resides as long as I know how to search trough and use the smart playlists, right?

Thanks
 
decksnap

decksnap

macrumors 68040
Apr 11, 2003
3,075
84
Save the smart playlists for after you're comfortable with basic browsing and organizing. If you look at the screenshot attached, there are several ways to browse your music, and this is just list view. The little eyeball icon in the right-bottom corner gives you the three panels along the top if you want to jump to a specific artist or album that way.

The search is so instant that typing in the first three letters of an artist is usually the quickest way to jump to them.

You can also click on the column heads to sort your main library by that criteria.

PS... by default iTunes copies anything you import or add to it's own folder, so no, you don't have to worry about where it is actually storing the files.
 

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statik13

statik13

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2008
229
3,341
If you want to see just how powerful some of the smart play lists can get, a really nice reference is http://smartplaylists.com/. It's the sight that finally convinced me to switch from whatever system I was using at the time to iTunes :D
 
S

slothrob

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2007
443
0
decksnap said:
PS... by default iTunes copies anything you import or add to it's own folder, so no, you don't have to worry about where it is actually storing the files.
Click to expand...
Also, screwing around with iTunes library folders will result in iTunes not knowing where your songs are, making things mysteriously disappear. The way I think of it is that those are iTunes' folders, not mine, so I shouldn't go poking around in there. Adding, subtracting, and renaming files should all be done through the iTunes main window, not in the library folders.
 
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